So far, Harlow's #watermelondress was on both Inside Edition and Kelly and Ryan Live. Mazzy was like, "Wait! What about MY watermelon dress???" She's right. The pink fringe cap sleeve is an excellent addition. Still think #babymeloning is the better hashtag!

Everybody is smiling and looking at camera! I just posted my latest travel vlog which follows our three day road trip in Central New York! It rained a lot but we still had tons of fun. Don't miss Harlow dancing like a robot and Mazzy talking "duck." I think this is my favorite travel video so far. YouTube link in bio!

She's getting her hair cut today. I was going to leave work and meet her and our sitter there but I'm too swamped. It's the first time she's getting a cut without me. Fingers crossed they don't chop it all off or give her faux hawk!

If you don't already know, "a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios with milk" has replaced Harlow's waffle obsession. She asks for it every single morning, in those words exactly. If I were to say, "Harlow, do you want a bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios?" She would say, "Yes, WITH MILK." Also, ever since Harlow and I made that video about how to make cereal (link in bio- FYI, the longer YouTube version is even better than the one I put on Insta), Harlow has been really into making her own breakfast in the morning. Her and Mazzy have even taken our cereal orders at night and then pre-set the table with our names written on the napkins. Then they instruct us to stay in bed until everything is ready. It's actually some of the few times we've been able to sit down to breakfast all together as a family at the dining room table. Thanks @cheerios for helping make the mornings easier this summer! #generalmillscereal #sponsored

8 Ways to Screw Up a Play Date

Not all playdates end in disaster but for a mom who overthinks everything, navigating social protocol in these situations can get complicated. Every mom has different rules and philosophies, and there is no time this becomes more glaringly obvious than when you have to parallel parent.

Here are eight ways your mom friendship can be put to the challenge on a play date:

1) The Gourmet Picnic for One

Your friend packs the perfect picnic. The only problem is— it’s just for her kid. Your child then turns into a drooling psycho stalking the other kid’s colorful containers filled with whole grain pretzels, homemade hummus and turkey pita sushi. You nervously giggle it off, while kicking yourself for not being as together as your friend. And then realize THIS IS ALL HER FAULT. Our children eat together or STARVE together! What happened to SOLIDARITY?! You’re about to tell her just that when suddenly your kid tackles your friend’s kid to the ground and starts eating the cheddar bunny crackers right out of her mouth. Then you get booted from the playground. Dignity score: zero

2) Sharing Politics

Your friend’s kid doesn’t like to share and suddenly you’re stuck trying to do right by your kid while hopefully not offending the other mom’s parenting. Or your kid is the one with the sharing issue and you don’t know whether to protect his “very special toy” or force him to hand it over. Friendships have ended over poor sharing etiquette. Do you let the kids sort it out? Or play referee? Sometimes you sit back and wait to see what the other parent will do, only to realize they are totally judging you for not stepping in. I suggest inviting your friend into the kitchen for a drink, like you didn’t see a thing.

3) Slidegate 2.0

You are at the playground and everything is going just fine when your kid attempts to climb the slide. The other mom steps in and tells your kid the slide is only for going down. Then your kid says, “My mom says I can go up the slide.” And then that friend looks at you like your kid is lying and references an awful post from a lunatic arguing going up the slide is good for kids when obviously it’s actually the gateway to becoming a criminal and you’re like— I WROTE THAT POST. And then you never play together again.

4) It’s Hard to Say I’m Sorry

Two seconds after walking through the door, your kid shoves your friend’s kid and then refuses to say he’s sorry. You say, “If you don’t say you’re sorry than we’ll have to go home.” Your kid still doesn’t say sorry. Then you have two options: 1) Follow through and leave the playdate two seconds after it began; or 2) Let your kid walk all over you so you can have the first grown-up contact you’ve had in weeks. One way makes you look too strict and the other way makes you look too lenient. Awww… crap. Can we get together without the kids next time?

5) the accidental Drop-off date

You’re excited to get together with your new mom friend and prep some grown-up snacks along with some stuff for the kiddos. You even chill a bottle of wine. Surely, your new best friend wants to share a drink on your first official playdate? The doorbell rings, your friend shoves her kid inside and asks when she should come back to pick her up. Wait… WHAT??? I’m babysitting? Two kids instead of just one????? FUUUUUUCK.

6) You Break the Dietary Rules

You know that awkward moment when you serve a child a hot dog and then later you realize the reason she scarfed that thing down like candy is because she’s actually vegetarian? OOPS. If the mom isn’t present, just keep that one to yourself. If she finds out why little Susie suddenly thinks veggie dogs SUCK, play dumb. What? Susie is vegetarian? She has been since birth? You told me five times when you dropped her off? Oh. I guess I was too busy drinking wine BY MYSELF.

7) The Unwelcome Binkie

Out of pure habit, you pop a pacifier in your friend’s baby’s mouth to see if it will soothe her, but the baby’s mom doesn’t believe in pacifiers because she’s afraid her child will become totally dependent on it and use it until she is five when it will have to be forcibly removed from her mouth by a team of child psychologists and should she just charge you for the extensive orthodontic surgery now or later? Uhhh…later?

8) Photo Sharing Issues

You snap a really cute picture of the kids playing together and immediately start editing it on your phone to post on Instagram. Then your new friend leans over and says she he has a strict policy of not posting pics of her kid on social media. She doesn’t understand those parents who don’t respect their children’s right to privacy. What kind of monsters would thoughtlessly violate their kids like that, you know? Ummm… this is awkward.

Everyone parents differently so let’s all agree on one thing. When it comes to play dates and mom friends— NO JUDGEMENTS.

13 responses to “8 Ways to Screw Up a Play Date”

I am one of those readers without kids yet. I’m 23 years old and “back in my day” (which wasn’t so long ago) moms NEVER stayed for playdates, I agree with harlow that in fact would not count as a playdate if my mom stayed. I wonder if this is a generational thing, an NYC thing, or playdates like that just don’t happen until children are older. Thoughts?

My daughter is 2, and I organize play dates because I want to hang out with my friends. And get out of the house. And spend time with grown ups. It’s really nice that the kids get along too. And good for the kids. But my main motivation is so I can spend time with my friends.

Jenna- I’m so glad I’m not the only readet without kids yet! I am 23 and I agree, I don’t remember any playdates where the other mom stuck around. But really, none of the parents hung around, I think it made us learn how to entertain ourselves, even at a fairly young age.

You guys don’t remember your moms on your play dates because you were too young. Typically drop-off play dates start at age 5/6 when kids are old enough to entertain themselves and don’t cause too many problems. Before that, both moms (or caregivers) are always present because there is much more supervision necessary for toddlers. I would say kindergarten is when there might be some confusion between moms when because some have started drop-off playdates while others haven’t. Love that there are a lot of young people without kids following my blog!

Been a reader without kids for a couple of years now! Also follow on Snapchat! Love your site! Also, I don’t remember play dates growing up lol we all just played in each other’s front yards and a parent would come out and check on us once in a while lol! I grew up in a Texan “suburb” outside of Houston

I think the “What kind of wine do you prefer?” question should be row in with the playdate invite so that the other mom knows that this is meant to be a mommy-friend date too. Just clears up expectations from the get go and makes me loo forward to wine and adult time with my pal!

We moved a few months ago and my kids both started school full time this year. They are making friends in school and wanting to have playdates, which is a drastic change from me organizing playdates with my friends who happen to also have kids. Navigating the “stay or drop off” scenario is awkward and confusing sometimes!

You cant believe the kids are playing baseball, no handheld devices, weather is great…bam your kid knows how to throw an awesome curveball and ahegm the other kid has no idea how to catch one. Busted face, apologetic phone call, urgent care, stitches, and a profuse amount of apologetic gifts purchased for the friend/victim…and no future invites for playdates have been received since. 😉

Omg! We had a birthday party last weekend. The little girl told her mom that she did not want any cake. She looks at her mom and tells her “I’m allergic to gluten!”
The poor mom stood there, flabbergasted. Then she tells her daughter, “you are not allergic to gluten. Do you even know what gluten is?”
The girl replies, “it’s the bad stuff in the cake and I’m allergic to it!”
I turned to the mom and said, “what kind of mother are you? You don’t even know your kid is allergic to gluten! Here, let me get you a gluten free beer, while you adjust to that new medical condition of your daughter.”

We went through a phase where my very verbal 2 year old would tell everyone ” I don’t like you, your grouchy and mean and loud and yell a lot” which was mostly accurate bc their all two but it didn’t help in the friend making catagory for me 😂

A sweet parent at preschool offered to have my 3 year old over to play with her 4 year old and I would come pick my guy up after I got off work. The tricky part was, though, that our husbands have the same first name, so it was not clear who was picking the boys up from preschool and dropping them at the house. So our two husbands and the boys just hung around school waiting for a verdict on who was responsible for them. (Because bless the dads for doing drop off and pick up, but heaven forbid they make a decision without the moms). Thankfully we have had a couple more play dates since the great-dad-mixup.

There’s a new sculpture in Astor Place that broke my heart. It is called The Last Three. It’s 17 feet tall and represents the last three northern white rhinos on earth. Their names are Sudan, Nijan, and Fatu. Sudan is the last male. He is 45, which is the life expectancy for a rhino. His daughter is Nijan and his granddaughter is Fatu. Rhino horns are worth a ton of money so they are in constant threat of poachers. This public piece of art was created by artists Gillie and Marc with the hope of educating and inspiring others to care about the plight of the rhinos. It worked on me. Their aim is to collect 1 million goodbye messages on www.goodbyerhinos.org and put them towards a petition for approaching governments about eliminating the demand for rhino horns. Please like, comment and tag your friends to get this seen by as many people as possible and feel free to regram and share! 😥 #goodbyerhinos

New York is still freezing so instead of doing our usual ski trip in March, we decided to switch things up and go somewhere much warmer. Not sure when I’ll post on my feed, but you can follow along on my Instagram stories...🌴☀️🥝👙🦎⛱⛵️✈️🍹🤸‍♂️😎 #comingsoon

Sometimes I look at my Instagram account and think— man, this feed really needs some adults. Who is running this thing??? And because I know everyone is going to ask where @littlemissparty got her dress, I already asked. It’s vintage. She bought it when she was 19. Sucks for the rest of us! I got my shirt at Aritzia. Thanks for asking 🤣 Have you guys watched our Instagram lives together? I like doing it so much better with a friend! We are on a two week break because our schedules are all crazy but will do it again after that. What would you guys want us to talk about? Any questions for two NYC working moms???

Harlow has a very important message for everyone. Brought to you by Super Why, I think. Also, this impromptu performance was 100% because Harlow noticed me upping my intake of fruits and vegetables this week. 🍎🍌🥕💪🏻 #harlowunplugged #eathealthy

For those of you asking about my Detox, I’m on Day Four. It ends tomorrow. Thank god because I can’t even look at beets anymore. Biggest lesson is the same thing I learned and forgot last year when I did this. GREEN JUICE MAKES ME FEEL EVEN MORE ALIVE THAN COFFEE. Yes, I said that in all caps like a crazy person. Doing a detox does make you feel somewhat like a crazy person. I know detoxes aren’t for everyone but if you are interested, follow my friend @zengirlfitness for more details. She’s been leading a bunch of us through this all week 🥦💚🍵🍏🍋🍉🍐